["Wales","England"]

John Paul Evans

Biography

John Paul Evans is Senior Lecturer in Photography at University of Wales Trinity St David, Swansea.

He is a Welsh born photographic artist who now lives in Devon. His work stems from an interest in gender representation and the polemics of representing men under patriarchy. In particular his interests focus on the politics of queer representation and challenging the process of naturalization. As Judith Butler asserts:

“If gender is something that one becomes-but can never be-then gender is itself a kind of becoming or activity, and that gender ought not to be conceived as a noun or a substantial thing or a static cultural marker, but rather as an incessant and repeated action of some sort”. (Judith Butler – Gender Trouble)

John Paul has exhibited nationally and internationally.

His work was selected for screening at the Voies Off Festival in Arles 2014.

Portfolio

Matrimonial Ties

Matrimonial Ties is an umbrella title that encompasses varied responses and
challenges to the historical and cultural significance of the wedding portrait in western culture.

The
works originated as a personal reflection on the current state of social change in Britain and Europe around
notions or definitions of marriage.

In a time of transition it is possible to see a future
where people of the same gender might be considered ‘marriage material’.

Whilst one
cultural definition might shift, there is a personal awareness that individuals forming relationships across
generation divides, whether straight or gay, will always be problematic ‘home-makers’,
especially in terms of representation and conveyed meaning.

‘Home and Away’
adopts the visual metaphor of alienation in presenting the couple literally as ‘outsiders’. This picture of
‘otherness’ fluctuates between the poignant, the comic, and a potentially disturbing presence in the
domestic space.

‘Till death us do part’ is a series of absurd
permutations of the wedding portrait. These performative responses to ideas of marriage and domesticity
evoke a sense of the uncanny – the ‘homely and un-homely’.

Explore

Open Call for VISIO European Programme on Artists' Moving Images

Wytske van Keulen Residency

European Prospects artist, Michal Iwanowski film Go Home Polish will be showing at Iris Film Festival 2019